The Rise of Celebrity Culture
A celebrity culture always arises in the Age of Decadence. We become obsessed with the lives of particular individuals, their talents and achievements. We may find them brilliant or despicable. Whether we are inspired, jealous, critical, or turned off, the focus is on individuals, what they are doing moment by moment and whether they please us. Popularity becomes the measure of success. These distractions grow ever more enticing as things worsen.
Cultures focused on popularity have no depth or resilience. They are superficial and ephemeral: tastes change; fashions come and go; fads rise and fall. Always changing, such a culture increases our sense of uncertainty and vulnerability. We may be popular now, but beneath the surface our anxiety and stress keep growing. Will you still love me tomorrow?
Think about how technology has exacerbated celebrity culture and raised popularity to the equivalent of the meaning of life. Social media and online selling have pushed popularity to new heights, using it to motivate our behavior—buy this because it’s a trend; buy this because your friends have; check out how many “likes” you got on your last post or photo; like this restaurant or website and earn a prize. I won’t go on—it’s pervasive everywhere online. But here’s a headline from my local paper that caught my attention: “Utah County Jail Receives High Rating, Positive Feedback on Google Reviews.”
Noting how our technology has enabled the cult of popularity is a good example of the progress trap. Online communications appeared to be wonderful progress—we could exchange photos, shop with ease, stay connected to family, get instant answers to questions, talk to people anywhere on the planet. But now it’s obvious how online capacities have, as unintended consequences, morphed into destructive cultural impacts. Narcissism has intensified; hate and “haters” now plague social media, public rallies, and communities; addictive online behaviors waste both time and lives; social skills deteriorate in those living online; patience is obsolete; reflective thinking is antiquated; boredom no longer exists; distractions proliferate and endanger. (Another headline from the New York Times: “General: Marines, Put Down Those Cell Phones!”)
Communication on social media moves in one direction, toward increased emotionality and distortion of message. If you engage in rapid message exchanges via Facebook or texting, notice what happens to the “conversation” as you go back and forth. The speed of response predicts that communications will become more intense: emotions will rise, miscommunication develop. If things become uncomfortable, people either disappear or offer a superficial ending, usually a series of emojis. How often do such exchanges move into real conversations?
We may be in contact, but we’re not connecting. We whiz by each other at cyberspace speed. No dwelling mind here! The Internet rewards speed over all else, and some of the statistics about our craving for speed are mind-boggling. In 2006, Forrester Research found that online shoppers expected web pages to load in under four seconds. Three years later in 2009, the number was shaved to two seconds; slower web pages led many shoppers to look elsewhere. By 2012, Google engineers had discovered that when results take longer than two-fifths of a second to appear, people search less, and lagging just one-quarter of a second behind a rival site can drive users away.5
Because of all the good things the Internet gave us, until recently we failed to notice that we’re entrapped. It’s not a question of a cost/ benefit analysis, although many people are still stuck there, wanting to acknowledge and hold onto all the benefits to our lives brought by social media even as we face its destructive impacts.
It doesn’t balance out. We have to recognize that this wondrous technology has distorted and corrupted the capacities and needs that human beings require to live: intimacy, thinking, listening, meaning making, being present. We need to come face-to-face with the destruction that social media has reaped to our ability to live well together.
More speed, new apps, artificial intelligence, more connectivity through technology is not the answer. Sane leadership is.